'Prioritise most popular forms of the game,' advises Nasser Hussain amidst coronavirus lockdown
Former England captain Nasser Hussain has stated that 'common sense decisions' need to be made by the English and Wales Cricket Board to get as much cricket in as possible even if meant extending the season till early autumn.
The ECB has suspended all cricketing action till 28 May amidst the novel coronavirus outbreak. And if reports are to be believed, the top brass of the organisation are not very confident with going through with their flagship tournament 'The Hundred' either.
Speaking to Mailsport, Hussain said that the ECB needs to prioritise the most popular and lucrative forms of the game.
"If and when cricket does come back this year, it has to prioritise the most popular and lucrative forms of the game, whether that’s internationals, Twenty20 Blast or the Hundred, because the game is not well enough off to do anything else," he said.
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Several top tournaments around the world, domestic, international and franchise-based have been put on hault for the moment. With the International Cricket Council's (ICC) Future Tours Programme (FTP) already scheduled, office bearers are not sure as to how the calendar could be condensed if the season is to be cut by a considerable period of time.
The Board for Control of Cricket in India president Sourav Ganguly spoke about the same yesterday, stating that he has no clue what is going to happen.
When asked about the same Hussain was of the opinion that the English season needs to be flexible. He stated that common sense decisions have to be made by the board and the season has to be extended if need be.
"...If that means the County Championship is put on the back burner, so be it. There will just need to be common sense decisions made to get as much cricket in as possible and to play as late as possible in the summer and even early autumn," he added.